
When Whales Had Legs
Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she has focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social

When Whales Had Legs

Explaining the Sense of Touch

Duplicitous Ducks

Lead on the Brain

Unsafe Scooters

Anatomy of a Landslide

Combating Malaria

Explaining a Mass Extinction

High-Speed Speciation

Cancer Clinical Trials

Smart Prosthetic Limbs

Probing the Galactic Core

New Animal Represents Previously Unknown Class

Making Demonic Possession Seem Plausible

Dissecting Retinal Degeneration

Fatal Fowl

The Chameleon's Secret Weapon

Use It or Lose It

Why Have Sex?

Tagish Lake Meteorite

Iron Supplement for the Sea

Sampling the Solar Wind

Breeding Sea Urchins

Sinus Infections and Cystic Fibrosis Linked